Zeke009
09-12-01, 09:35 AM
Just wanted to mention a few things about how some companies/warehouses ship products. First off, I used to work for UPS as a computer tech that would travel to shipper locations and replace/repair/upgrade the systems & software used in the day-to-day shipping and have seen numerous things that would cause alarm.
If you can, speak with someone about the packaging of your order. If you are ordering say a, CPU and some RAM. How will they pack it? Will the stick it in an oversized box and fill with newspaper? If you are ordering a few items and are expensive and important to you, this could be well worth your time and save you the trouble of any RMA service later.
I have seen so many companies use oversized boxes for small items with little or very inadequate packing. I have also seen them "repair" boxes with scotch tape, not packing tape. They also tend to reuse boxes over and over again. Boxes that visibly have no strength left in them at all. I visited nearly 100 different companies in the 8 months I worked for them.
Granted, UPS is to blame for some of the abuse our packages suffer. But they have taken strides to avoid this. Now a number of hubs are very automated with scanners that automatically sort packages, less handling by workers.
For instance:
1) Sunday (9/9) I ordered a Lian Li case from www.mpcparts.com .I received it yesterday (9/11) without any visible handling marks on the box. Inside it was all the original packing from the manufacturer, very strong box and packed well with the foam blocks.
2) Last Thursday I ordered a catalog from TigerDirect.com. I needed something to read. ;) Monday I recieved a large box from TigerDirect with 2 3Com Home Networking hubs in it. First of all, how the hell did I get this?! After calling my CC company and Tiger, I found out that their system gave me someone else's order! But that packaging was rather lax. These 2 boxes were in a very oversized box with a few peices of air pack around them. Some off that airpack was popped from these boxes being able to shift around. I wonder if they will work?
By the way, I am waiting for Tiger to send me the airbill to return those hubs.
If you can, speak with someone about the packaging of your order. If you are ordering say a, CPU and some RAM. How will they pack it? Will the stick it in an oversized box and fill with newspaper? If you are ordering a few items and are expensive and important to you, this could be well worth your time and save you the trouble of any RMA service later.
I have seen so many companies use oversized boxes for small items with little or very inadequate packing. I have also seen them "repair" boxes with scotch tape, not packing tape. They also tend to reuse boxes over and over again. Boxes that visibly have no strength left in them at all. I visited nearly 100 different companies in the 8 months I worked for them.
Granted, UPS is to blame for some of the abuse our packages suffer. But they have taken strides to avoid this. Now a number of hubs are very automated with scanners that automatically sort packages, less handling by workers.
For instance:
1) Sunday (9/9) I ordered a Lian Li case from www.mpcparts.com .I received it yesterday (9/11) without any visible handling marks on the box. Inside it was all the original packing from the manufacturer, very strong box and packed well with the foam blocks.
2) Last Thursday I ordered a catalog from TigerDirect.com. I needed something to read. ;) Monday I recieved a large box from TigerDirect with 2 3Com Home Networking hubs in it. First of all, how the hell did I get this?! After calling my CC company and Tiger, I found out that their system gave me someone else's order! But that packaging was rather lax. These 2 boxes were in a very oversized box with a few peices of air pack around them. Some off that airpack was popped from these boxes being able to shift around. I wonder if they will work?
By the way, I am waiting for Tiger to send me the airbill to return those hubs.